Project rust-bucket...

[haaken675]

A few updates from during the week. Turns out the Holset HY35 just wasn't going to fit. The turbine housing on the one I had was threaded on two hole for a bolt while the other two were non threaded for a stud. I drilled out the threaded holes, but it was just too tight to get a nut on the studs from the t3 flange...I clearanced some of the housing, but I really didn't like the idea of grinding down a cast material, especially in a place that will see the amount of heat cycling and stress that will.

So, fast forward and I ended up with a new turbo


I was pretty much dead set on a borg warner turbo, but the guy at Boost Lab here in tampa talked me into this precision. I don't normally get sold on anything, but the price was a significant difference, and since this was an expense I wasn't really looking to incur, I went with his suggestion.





It fits a lot better in the engine bay as well since it was never meant to have an internal gate, and thus the dimensions are a bit better for my application. Only downside now is that I need to make a new downpipe...

Since I have the interior nearly completed, most all of the wiring done, etc. I decided it was time to get the seats in and run my harnesses.

Then ran into this issue


That angle is to severe, and I think the harness bar is not made high enough. I don't think lowering my seat is going to make the angle much better, so I am looking into some other solutions still...

But until then, I just mocked everything up to see what it would look like





The wife likes it at least :)

[haaken675]

Got a bunch more work done today, but unfortunately not nearly as much as I was hoping to. There are always silly little things that just east time away...


Got the seats and brackets mocked up to check fitment and seating position




I also got most of the center console reassembled as well. Even wired up the push start button, and so far so good.



Hopefully during the week I can refinish the seat brackets, install the harnesses, and finish off the wiring.

Only real negative from the weekend is that I just realized the HY35 doesn't have enough clearance to get a nut onto 1 of the 4 studs...Not sure how i'm going to solve that one yet.

[haaken675]

All sorts of work I managed to finish up today.



Coated the floor pan in bed liner. I have a feeling a lot of people here aren't going to like this one, but it's functional and really easy to apply and touch up. This has turned into a track build anyways...Side note, if anyone else plans on doing this, do not leave the car in your garage while doing this...Your house will smell like checmicals while it cures.

Also broke the welder out and got the second seat rail completed


On top of these, I finally welded up the hy35 internal wastegate flap, drilled out two of the 4 holes on the turbo for the two remaining studs, finished up the downpipe, tapped the compressor housing for a 1/8th fitting for the boost controller, and leaned up a few of the non needed brackets in the engine bay.

The fixed back seats and harnesses should be going in tomorrow with the rest of the center console pieces. Hopefully I will be able to start the car next week.

[JeLani]

and finally, I decided to do a 24v swap.

THIS... would've saved me alot of time lol ... 86 alpine white basket case car here , used it as an intro to wrenching. not even mad

[88M3racer]

I think we all think that as we progress on our projects ... and skill.

Thanks for the props on my beside the barn find. Hope to be street driving in the summer.

I'll keep watch'n yours ... looks like fun

[haaken675]

Your car is such an awesome find!

This is my first project as big as this one ahs turned into. I have "built" a few other cars over the last few years, but nothing to this scale. I have been learning a LOT along the way, and would definitely have done a few things differently if I knew this was the route I was going from the beginning.

[88M3racer]

I went back & read your entire build (so far) after you suggested the door cards. Thanks.

Looks like you've done this before. Impressed.

You can see what I'm working with in the project section: "My retired '88 M3 GTS2 Pro Challenge Street Car"

I'm picking away at it as winter goes along up here in Ga.

Paul

[haaken675]

Small update. Finally got around to getting the surge tank installed (nearly)





Just need to throw the hose clamps on the tops side after I 100% determine the line routing underneath the car. For a cheap ebay surge tank, it fit pretty well and so far I am happy. Time will tell if I made a bad choice or not. The fuel pump is however an AEM high flow pump, so I didn't skimp there.

[haaken675]

Not yet. I keep getting bogfged down with little things that are taking way longer then they should. Great example, the passenger side front hard line to soft brake line nut was stripped, likely by the previous owner or some shop. Same thing happened with the clutch line. Took me WAAAY to long to deal with that.

I have the MS3x fully setup and hopefully wired correctly. Just need to swap the crank sensor that I forgot to do while the car was still on jack stands, finish up the surge tank lines (just need a few bolts to hold down the surge tank), and I need to weld in a bung to a temporary downpipe for the wideband.


If it wasn't coming up to Christmas I would do all of that this weekend and hopefully have it running.

[jeenyus]

running?

[haaken675]

[haaken675]

Big weekend as I finally got the car back on the ground! Still going to have to go up a few times to adjust ride height, finish exhaust, etc. But I will be able to roll the car out of my garage to clean and be able to fully open the doors to finish up the wiring for the first time in over 6 months...

The ride height was a complete guess, but I think the front is probably close to right, and the rear will definitely be going down. Final height will be determined once the fender flares go on.





Hopefully I can get the majority of the wiring wrapped up today and get the seats and harnesses installed.

[haaken675]

Finally got my mausberry circuits auto shut down car switch wired up and installed. Dash looks to be functioning properly at the moment. Just need to do a bit more tweaking to hopefully get the raspberry pi to startup faster. Eventually I will design a custom gauge/dash view, but I think this standard tunerstudio one will serve it's purpose for now.

[haaken675]

Progress is really starting to pick up lately. I think i'm on the home stretch now.

Starting working on the fuel surge tank. mocked up where it should be sitting and put the bulkhead fittings in. Kinda wishing I went with AN fittings now, but they are just so damn expensive...





Turns out my previous intercooler mounts were not going to work with the bumper, so I decided to weld up a pretty simple bracket for both the intercooler and the oil cooler. I think it came out pretty good for how simple it is (I am fairly new to welding).







One of the last pieces that needs to be fabricated is the downpipe, and I decided since I had the welder out is was time to start working on that as well. I think i'm half way there at this point now. Just need to make some tweaks here and there and the downpipe is coming along. I need to see if I can find some images of 3" exhaust going all the way out since I honestly can't remember how the stock exhaust was run at this point.







Anyone have any suggestions for keeping the wiring from melting aside from exhaust heat wrap? I am thinking about fabricating some sort of heat shield, but a metal heat shield I imagine would get pretty hot as well.

[haaken675]

Almost forgot, here's a demo of the switch panel/gauges as I am in the wiring process

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqdcysaBYiR/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet